Quànfā sòng 勸發頌
Verses Exhorting the Arousing (of Aspiration to Awakening) by 覺鑁 (撰)
About the work
A single-fascicle didactic-homiletic verse poem by 覺鑁 Kakuban (1095–1144), composed in four-character lines, exhorting the listener to arouse the aspiration to awakening (bodhicitta-utpāda) by meditation on the impermanence of the worldly condition. The poem is a classical Shingon-Buddhist anityatāsūtra in verse, set against the meditation-doctrines that the Buddhas dwell in the citadel of the three-equalities and the true-virtue while sentient beings wander in the four-wombs phantom-wilderness.
Abstract
Opening verses (representative): “The Buddhas awake to the three-equalities; / they abide in the true-citadel of ten-thousand virtues. / Sentient beings deluded as to the one-thusness, / wander in the four-wombs phantom-wilderness. / The three-existences are all suffering; / the nine realms are wholly impermanent. / Even the sages are subject to impermanence; / how shall the worldling escape inevitable death? / One life is like a dream; / a hundred years no different from lightning. / The wind-blown leaf is the body, hard to hold; / the frost-and-dew is life, easily exhausted. / The poisoned-arrow has already entered the body; / the dharma-medicine has not yet been heavy on the mind. / The impermanence-wind has fanned once: / the conditioned body scatters four ways. / What can rescue from the burning stone? / How can one escape the niraya (hell)?”
The poem proceeds through extended verse-meditation on the futility of worldly status — the name-and-office is like a deceitful enemy; honor-and-pleasure resembles sweet poison; the deluded-and-foolish drink themselves to death on craving; the wise-and-knowing awaken and abandon. The classical Buddhist motif of worldly-instability (世間無常) is developed with examples — the foolish-and-shallow beast and small insect love the under-side of the latrine for its stench; the crazed-child and the thirsty-deer chase the sun-mirage in the wild. Even the homage of gods and dragons should not produce pride; even the imperial honor is not worth attachment.
Significance: a Heian-period Kakuban bodhicitta-exhortation poem in the tradition of anityatā (impermanence) verse literature — companions in spirit to the Mujōdō of the Tendai homiletic tradition and to the later medieval Buddhist jisei (death-verse) genre.
Translations and research
- No substantial Western-language translation located.
- van der Veere, Henny, A Study into the Thought of Kōgyō Daishi Kakuban (2000).
- For the Heian-period anityatā verse tradition see LaFleur, William R., The Karma of Words: Buddhism and the Literary Arts in Medieval Japan, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1983.
Links
- CBETA: T79n2526